NTE Neverness to Everness First Impressions - Lacrimosa is adorable

April 29, 2026 · 3:33 PM

NTE: Neverness to Everness is a new gacha game developed by Hotta Studio, a subsidiary of Perfect World—the same company that released Tower of Fantasy a few years ago and is well known within the industry. It has been in development for quite a while and was highly hyped to be one of the "new generation" games to be released in 2026.

The setting is an urban fantasy world where supernatural anomalies happen every day and are integrated into everyone's lives. The protagonist (you can choose to be male or female at the beginning) is an appraiser—a sort of investigator who solves these cases and restores peace to the city.

Lacrimosa was the highlight of the parts that I managed to play through. Absolutely adorable.

Protagonist has something that reminds me of Stelle of Star Rail whenever I see her. Be it the hair color or the usual confused/clueless look.

In order to solve these mysteries, you need to ally yourself with various people with esper powers, ranging from cute girls and wolf-human hybrids to even a character with a TV for a head. The cast is colorful and generally pleasant to watch, thanks to a character design that leans more toward the "cute" side compared to more realistic ones (e.g., Wuthering Waves).

My attention was captured almost immediately by Lacrimosa, who wears street-goth attire, including a large red jacket, features gray/black hair parted in the middle, and has an extremely sleepy, perpetually tired personality. Apparently, she is going to be a limited character in a future patch, which means I know who I need to save my rolls for.

There are character that go outside of the 'cute' spectrum, but then you see them talking and they're cute anyway.

Our protagonist can be quite clumsy and honestly like her interactions with the other characters. I wish she was more active though.

I have been impressed by the smoothness of the gameplay and the overall quality of the world. The city is detailed, and you can see that the developers put a lot of care into every single part of it: the characters, the NPCs, the interactions, the roads, and the features. At times (especially when driving), it felt like I was playing anime Cyberpunk—just without Delamain.

At the same time, something feels off, and I think I know where this feeling comes from. It has elements from various other games that I have played, and it feels like a rehash of them in many places. The character design reminds me a lot of Star Rail, the movement system of Wuthering Waves, the combat of ZZZ, and the open-world exploration of Genshin Impact.

She feels like the mascot of the series, the main heroine who always stalk the protagonist. I like her though.

She seems like a good girl! Clearly not S or anything you know? *looks away*

It is not a bad thing per se, but I wish they would try to create their own identity in the coming months as the series develops. You know how Endfield managed to create its own niche with the factory system in the game. It is still early to judge, though; I want to see what the endgame is all about once I get there.

The gacha system has a 90-roll pity with a 100% chance of getting the character you want. I managed to get Nannally after only 30 rolls, so I am not sure if there are any special animations, but the whole system is reminiscent of your average Genshin-style gacha. It will all depend on how many rolls they give per patch to see if the system works.

Overall, I am happy with NTE so far, even if I am not as excited as I was with other games in the past. With the incoming release of Azur Promilia and the harsh competition from other titles, it is a hard world to survive in, and I hope this game manages to create its own niche.